64 years after airman Alden Hershiser was killed, he's buried in Patriot Day ceremony

Karen Schiely/Akron Beacon Journal via APBill Hershiser wipes away tears as he sits between his daughter Susan Adair, left, and his wife, Sally Hershiser, during the playing of Taps at the funeral of his brother 1st Lt. Alden Hershiser, Friday at Rose Hill Cemetery in Fairlawn. Hershiser's remains were found two years ago in Germany near where his bomber was shot down near the end of World War II in 1945.

FAIRLAWN -- Friday was a day for lost souls, fallen aircraft, cemeteries and tears.

Sept. 11 became Patriot Day to honor those who were killed in the terrorist attacks of 2001.

But this year it also was the day chosen to bury and remember another patriot -- 1st Lt. Alden Hershiser, who died 64 years ago when his B-24 bomber was shot down in a mission over Germany during World War II.

Hershiser, 24, of Akron, bailed out of his flaming aircraft but didn't survive the fall. He was buried in an anonymous grave until exhumed in 2007 and identified this past July.

More than 50 mourners attended the burial service at Rose Hill Burial Park, including the lost airman's brother, Bill Hershiser of Kent.

A missing airman comes homeBurial services are held for Alden Hershiser who was killd 64 years ago during World War II, and just recently identified and brought back to Akron.

"This is an unbelievable moment for me, a day I thought I'd never see," Hershiser told family members and guests gathered under the distant echo of aircraft passing overhead.

"It's a huge honor to watch my brother be returned home, and especially to have him laid to rest next to my parents," Hershiser added. "After 64 years, my brother's journey is finally ended."

He was accompanied by his daughter, Susan Adair of Kent, who several years ago had urged a former high school schoolmate, John Beckwith, to launch an Internet search for information about her long-lost uncle. Both she and her father credit that search with helping military authorities identify Hershiser.

"I'm so happy, so proud and so humbled to be a part of this," Adair said. "It's just a great day."

A graveside easel displaying a photo of the airman in uniform drew the quiet, intense attention of Geneva Wolff, 86, of Akron, who remembered "Hershey" as the boy she grew up with, who always hung out on her family's Lexington Avenue front porch and talked with her about marriage just before going off to war.

"It's hard. It's still hard. That's why I'm here," she said. "He was just a special person."

His loss "broke my heart," Wolff added, noting it was years before she could bring herself to date again. She said that long after Hershiser was declared missing, his mother would call, asking Wolff to read his letters to her, letters that Wolff still keeps to this day.

Wolff was joined by Walter Backlund, 87, of Cuyahoga Falls, who also grew up in Hershiser's North Hill neighborhood. "Alden was a very likable fellow, a jokester who liked to make people laugh," he recalled.

But even strangers came to pay their respects, including Craig Richards, 62, of Valley City, one of a half-dozen members of the Medina chapter of Rolling Thunder, a veterans' motorcycle escort group.

"This is one of our brothers come home," said Richards, a Vietnam-era vet. "We wanted to make sure someone was here to welcome him."

Hershiser was buried with full military decorum, including a rifle salute and honor guard from Fort Knox, Ky.

An Army bugler played taps, a song perhaps heard around the country on that somber day.

Those who loved, knew or just respected the lost airman had a chance to pass close to his flag-draped casket, gently touching or tracing the lines of the flag, veterans giving it a slow salute or a soft fist-bump in a sign of reassurance and camaraderie.

And even after 64 years, they still had tears for a hometown hero who finally made it home and found his peace on Patriot Day.

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